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[atnf-data-reduction] Revised arrangements for Miriad at the ATNF

From: <mcalabre_at_email.protected>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:35:08 +1100

Miriad usage within the ATNF and elsewhere is about to change:

  1) Move from /nfs/applic/miriad to /nfs/atapplic/miriad.

  2) System mastered at Epping and propagated to ATNF observatories.

  3) Revised support for installing Miriad elsewhere, with binary
     distributions, including for PowerPC and Intel Macs.

  4) Revamped code management system.

In detail:

1) Miriad will now reside in /nfs/atapplic together with much other
   software used within ATNF. For those who use the system login
scripts (i.e. if you have a file called ~/.login.packages) then the
change will be transparent - you won't need to do anything. Otherwise
within the next week or so you will need to revise your .login file (for
csh and/or tcsh) to define the Miriad environment as follows:

  source /nfs/atapplic/miriad/MIRRC

and/or your .profile file

  . /nfs/atapplic/miriad/MIRRC.sh

for sh and/or bash.

The old system will be maintained in /nfs/applic for a few weeks then
removed (ATNF observatories included).

2) Quasi-autonomous Miriad installations were previously maintained at
   the ATNF observatories; source code updates were automatically
fetched and recompiled locally. However, variations could develop
between installations because a certain amount of manual intervention
was required to ensure that everything necessary was recompiled. In
particular, the Parkes installation had not been updated for a long
time.

With the new high-speed links it is now feasible to maintain Miriad at
Epping and propagate executables as well as source code to Narrabri,
Mopra, and Parkes along with the rest of atapplic. This happens in the
small hours via rdist or rsync. All Miriad installations within the
ATNF should now be identical at least every 24 hours when the
synchronization process completes.

3) It should now be easier to install Miriad elsewhere, including on
   your laptop, home computer, or at other institutions. Self-contained
binary distribution kits are provided from the ATNF ftp site for linux
(32- and 64-bit), Solaris, and Darwin-based systems (PowerPC and Intel).

Platforms for which binaries are not provided are now covered by a GNU
autoconf-based system (i.e. configure/make). Miriad and RPFITS are now
gfortran-aware.

Updated installation instructions are available from the Miriad homepage
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/miriad/index.html

4) Miriad source code is now managed by a system based on RCS and GNU
   make with full dependency analysis. It ensures that when a file is
changed all software for which the file is a prerequisite will be
recompiled. The old utilities (e.g. mircadd, mirclnk, mirnewer, etc.)
have been superceded (mirimport and incremental source code updates have
been retained). Those familiar with the Miriad directory structure may
notice some changes.

The RCS version files are distributed from the Miriad ftp area so that
source code changes can be tracked on a line-by-line basis.

As well as being more rigorous the new system is also more flexible and
fully supports software development in a programmer workspace. For
further information please contact me.

Mark Calabretta
ATNF
Received on 2006-11-28 18:35:49